At the head of the public instruction in the Philippines, one finds
the university of Manila, called La Real y Pontificia Universidad
de Santo Tomas [i.e., the royal and pontifical university of Santo
Tomás]. Its foundation as a college goes back to the first year of the
seventeenth century. Its first benefactors were Archbishop Benavides
of Manila, and Bishop Soria of Nueva Segovia. Both of them made it a
gift of their library, and, in addition, the first one gave it 1,000
pesos and the second 1,800. In 1619, the house was entrusted to the
religious of the Order of St. Dominic. The following year the courses
of public instruction were opened there. Finally, on November 27,
1623, King Felipe IV took it under his special protection. In the year
1645, the same monarch obtained a bull from Pope Innocent X, which
erected the college of Santo Tomás of Manila into a university. The
statutes governing that institution today were not drawn up until a
long time after, that is to say, in the year 1781. Instruction there
is entrusted to the doctors, licentiates, and masters (maestros). At
the present time there are 21, both doctors and licentiates, and no
masters. Latin, logic, physics, metaphysics, ethics, canon law, and
theology are taught there. In addition to that, some time afterward
there was founded a chair of Roman law and one of Spanish law. The
number of students who attend that university is now 581, namely,
sixty-one collegiates, fifteen capistas, who are maintained at the
expense of the college, and 505 day students. [129] The costume of
the collegiates is a long robe of green silk with black, sleeves,
a beca, a kind of red scarf folded in two parts and crossing over
the breast and drawn up behind the shoulders, a black collar with a
white border and a cap like that worn by the law advocates of Spain.
If the university of Manila is the chief institution of public
instruction, it is not the most ancient. From June 8, 1585, the
king had ordered the foundation of a college, in which the sons of
the Spanish inhabitants of the archipelago might be reared in the
love of virtue and letters under the direction of the fathers of
the Society of Jesus. But it was only in 1601 that that order could
be carried out by the institution of the college of San José. The
first collegiates numbered 13, but that number was soon raised to
20, all of whom were the sons or the near relatives of the first
authorities of the country. Pope Gregory XV granted that college the
right of conferring degrees of philosophy and theology. The funds
of that institution are drawn from several estates, which have been
conceded to it at different times. They are sufficient to provide for
the maintenance of the vice-rector and of the masters, in the annual
pay which is granted to them, as well as to the rector, and for the
maintenance of 22 free pupils. Some pay students are also admitted
there at the rate of 50 piastres [i.e., pesos] per year. Philosophy,
rhetoric, and Latin are taught there. Upon the suppression of the
Society of Jesus, that college was closed until 1777. The costume of
the students is a red gown with black sleeves and a black cap.
The college of San Juan de Letran commenced by being a primary school,
founded in 1630 at the expense of a charitable man, whose name,
Juan Gerónimo Guerrero, deserves to pass to posterity. He consecrated
himself to gathering together in that institution young orphan boys,
and to teaching them reading, writing, and the Christian doctrine. He
was also able, thanks to the abundant alms which the inhabitants
of Manila put into his hands, to provide for the maintenance and
clothing of all those children. Before dying that kind-hearted man
took the habit of St. Dominic, and entrusted the pious foundation
which he had undertaken into the hands of that order. The latter
erected it into a college, for which it obtained the protection of
the king and some funds for its support. By means of a sum of 600
piastres which the alcalde of Pangasinan is charged to give annually
to a Dominican who collects it, that college supports gratuitously
25 orphan boys. It also admits an unlimited number of boarders,
both Indians and mestizos, who pay 50 piastres per year. It finally
receives under the name of sacristans, porters, librarians, etc.,
several young students who do not pay anything. The total number of
those who receive education in that college under different titles
is today 239 persons. Their costume is blue with black sleeves. A
maltese cross is placed at the right on their beca.
The charity school (escuela pia) of Manila was established in 1817
under the direction of a special assembly composed of distinguished
inhabitants, in the number of which there was a member of the chapter
of the cathedral, and one of the tribunal of commerce. The inhabitants
who had assembled supplied the funds which were to serve for the
maintenance of that useful establishment. But those funds having been
used in trade according to custom they had the same fortune that
so many other considerable sums and charitable foundations of that
capital have had, namely, they were lost because of the revolution
of Mexico. The assembly, being dissolved on account of lack of funds,
the city took the charity school under its charge. Reading, writing,
Christian doctrine, Spanish grammar, and slate arithmetic, are taught
there. The pupils must be Spaniards; the sons of well-to-do parents
pay 2 piastres per month; those who are less well-to-do, 1 piastre;
and the poor pay nothing. In order to be admitted there a ticket from
the president of the dissolved assembly was sufficient. At present the
regidor is charged in his turn with the management of the establishment
which delivers the ticket. The number of pupils at the present time
is 50, of whom 26 receive instruction free.
In pursuance of reiterated instances from the tribunal of
commerce a marine school was opened in Manila in 1820, by royal
authorization. Arithmetic, the elements of geometry, rectilinear, and
spherical trigonometry, cosmography, and piloting, besides practical
geometry applied to the making of hydrographical maps and plans,
with the manner of designing them, were taught there. The whole,
conformed to the course of study for the navy, was composed, according
to the order of the king, by the chief of the royal fleet, Don Gabriel
Ciscar. The expenses of the institution are supplied by the funds
called avería. The tribunal of commerce decides as to the admission of
pupils and those who distinguish themselves on graduating to become
captains of trading ships, making the voyage to China and India, and
even going as far as America and to Europa. This proves that, whatever
the Spaniards say of it, the young men of Manila are as susceptible
to instruction as those of the mother country. In fact, there is no
doubt that if the studies of this school were more solid and less
theoretical, most remarkable persons would be seen to graduate from it.
Finally, in 1840, a commercial school has been established, which
is held in the rooms of the tribunal [of commerce]. Bookkeeping,
commercial correspondence, and the living languages are taught there
free of charge. By a choice quite extraordinary, a marked preference
is given to the French language, although that language is one that
is spoken the least in that part of the world; since unfortunately
our relations there are very few, as we have no longer any need to
go there after sugar.
Very well equipped libraries exist in all the convents, and those of
the university and of the colleges offer resources to the students
who receive their education in those establishments.
This is all we have to say in regard to the institutions consecrated
to the education of the young men. That of the young women has not
been forgotten.
The seminary of Santa Potenciana was founded in the year 1589 by
Governor Dasmariñas, by virtue of a royal order. Article 27 of that
ordinance contains the following: "Upon arriving at the Filipinas
Islands you shall ascertain how and where, and with what endowment, a
convent for the shelter of girls may be founded, so that both those who
should come from here and those born there may live in it and so that
they may live modestly, and after being well instructed, may go out
therefrom to be married and bear children." [130] The worthy governor
was so zealous in carrying out the wishes of the king that, in the
year 1593, the convent was established in the church of San Andres. A
new royal ordinance of June 11, 1594 approved the regulations of it,
which bore on the conduct to be observed in the parlor, on the duties
of the chaplain, who was to be more than forty years old, and who was
to be, at the same time, the manager of the house, on the customs of
both pupils and the superior and mistress. It was to be suitable, but
modest. The king took charge of the furnishing thereof. The governor
was authorized to fix the sum which was to be paid by the women who
desired to enter the convent in order to be cloistered there. That
sum was to be very moderate.
There exists no longer any copy of the first rule of that house,
whose archives perished in the terrible earthquake of 1645, when
ten or twelve pupils lost their lives. New rules were drawn up and
approved in 1696, and remained in force until 1823, at which time
they were revised.
The school is established at present in a house which was bought for
its use by the public treasury, namely, the ancient locality of the
arsenal. The treasurer also furnishes the expenses of a small chapel,
those of their medical service, of pharmacy, of the infirmary, of
the clothing of the pupils, and of six serving girls, the total sum
amounting to 700 piastres per year, besides the support of a sacristan,
four fagot-gatherers, and one woman to go for provisions. The treasury
pays for the support of one superior, of one portress, and twenty-four
collegiates, 1 1/2 reals (one franc) per day for each one. And they
are given besides, from the royal magazines, 46 baskets of pinagua
rice, of 15 gantas per basket, 25 quintals of wood, and 17 gantas of
cocoanut oil for lights.
After the foundation of the confraternity of the Santa Misericordia,
the latter also supported many poor Spanish orphan girls. It caused
those girls to be reared either at Santa Potenciana or in private
houses. But in 1632, a house having been bought in order to gather
them all there together, the confraternity founded the school of
Santa Isabel. The rules drawn up in 1650 were entirely changed in
1813. The number of the pupils in this institution is at present 105,
who are admitted under divers titles and conditions. The boarders pay
60 piastres annually. The others get their education free. Day pupils
are also admitted there, but they are not allowed to communicate with
those who live in the house. The teaching is quite elementary. The
service is furnished by twelve servant girls for the interior, and
eight men for the outside work.
In the preceding chapters, the description of the beaterios [131]
has been seen, of which the majority are dedicated to the education
of poor young girls.
One can see, after what we have just said, that education in the
Philippines, both of the children of the country and of the mestizos
and Indians of both sexes, is not so greatly neglected as certain
persons pretend, and that the colony has made, on the contrary, from
the earliest times the greatest efforts for the instruction of the
people. Even in the smallest villages the Indians find facilities
for learning to read and write. For everywhere one finds primary
schools which are supported by the people. On the other hand, the
aptness of the Indians is quite remarkable. From the most tender age
they can be seen trying to draw their letters with a sharpened bamboo
either on the sand or on the green banana leaves. Also many excellent
copyists can be found among them, who are skilful in imitating any
kind of writing, designs, or printed characters. Among others, there
is mentioned a missal book which was copied by an Indian and sent to
one of the Spanish kings. It is asserted that it was impossible to
distinguish it from the original. They also copy geographical maps
with rare exactness.
It follows, then, that the instruction of the Indians is far from
being backward, if one compares it with that of the popular classes in
Europe. Nearly all the Tagálogs know how to read and write. However,
in regard to the sciences, properly so called, very little progress has
been made in them among the Indians of the Philippines. Some mestizos
alone have a slight smattering of them, and those among the Indians
who have received orders know Latin. The most erudite are without
doubt those who, having studied at the university of Santo Tomás,
have embraced the career of the bar. Among them are counted advocates
worthy of being placed by the side of the most celebrated in Spain.
In regard to what concerns literature, there is a Tagálog grammar and
dictionary, as well as a work called arte, which is a kind of polyglot
grammar, of the Tagálog, Bicol, Visayan and Isinayan. All these works,
and in general everything that appears in one of the languages of the
country, are published by the care of the religious, who have at their
disposition the printing house of Santo Tomás, and who have the means
of meeting the expenses of the printing, which the Indians could not
do. Both at Manila and in its environs there are several printing
houses for the use of the public. They are the presses of Nuestra
Señora de Loreto at Sampaloc, which issues grammars, dictionaries,
works of history, etc. There was formerly published at Manila a
newspaper called El noticioso Filipino. Today it appears there only
as [a paper of] the prices current in Spanish and in English. At our
departure the establishment of a new newspaper was beginning. [132]
The literary works consist of pieces in verse, sometimes on very
weighty subjects. Thus, for example, the "Passion of our Lord" has been
translated into Tagálog verse. Then there are tragedies, which as we
have mentioned above are excessively long. [133] They often contain
the entire life of a king. There are, furthermore, little poems,
corridas, epithaliums, and songs. These last especially are very
numerous and have special names, such as comintang de la conquista,
the sinanpablo, the batanguiño, the cavitegan. [134] Not only are
the words of these songs, but also the melodies, national, and the
Indians note the music of them with prodigious cleverness. All the
Indians, in fact, are naturally given to music and there are some of
them who play five or six instruments. Also there is not a village,
however small it be, where mass is not accompanied by music for lack
of an organ. The choice of the airs which they play is not always the
most edifying. We have heard in the churches the waltzes of Musard,
and the gayest airs of the French comic opera.
Thus, as we have just said, the Indians are born musicians. Those who
before knew only the Chinese tam-tam, the Javanese drum, and a kind
of flute of Pan, made of a bit of bamboo, today cultivate the European
instruments with a love which comes to be a passion. They are not, for
the most part, very strong in vocal music, for they have very little or
no voice. Nevertheless, their singing offers in our opinion a certain
character of originality which is not unworthy of attention. [135]
Scarcely had the Spaniards conquered that archipelago than its
inhabitants tried to imitate the musical instruments of Europe,
and the viguela, a kind of guitar having a very great number of
strings, but which is not always the same, soon became their favorite
instrument. They manufactured it with a remarkable perfection. And
besides, they themselves made the strings.
The bandolon is another guitar, but smaller; having twenty-four
metallic strings joined by fours. They are very skilful in playing that
instrument, and they make use either of one of their finger nails,
which they allow to grow to a very great length, or of a little bit
of wood. We do not know from what nation they have borrowed that
instrument, which we have never seen in Spain.
The music of the villages of which we have spoken is generally composed
of violins, of ebony flutes, or even of bamboo in the remote provinces,
and of a bajo de viguela, a large guitar of the size of a violon-cello,
which is played with a horn or ebony finger expressly made [for
that purpose]. They draw from it very agreeable sounds. That music,
somewhat discordant, is not often wholly without something agreeable
in it. We cannot help admiring men who can reach that point without
having taken lessons, and of whom the majority have perhaps never
had occasion to meet an artist.
The military music of the regiments of the garrison at Manila,
and in some large villages of the provinces, has reached a point
of perfection which is astonishing. We have never heard better in
Spain, not even in Madrid. It is at the square of the palace that, on
Thursdays, Sundays, and fête days, at eight o'clock in the evening,
at the time when the retreat is beaten, the society of Manila and
the foreigners and travelers, assemble to hear the concert. The
Indians play there from memory for two or three hours alternately,
from great overtures of Rossini and Meyerbeer, or contradances, and
vaudevilles. They owe the great progress which they have made for
some time in their military music to the French masters who direct
them. These same musicians are also summoned to the great balls, where
they execute pieces among the contradances played by other instruments.
We have stated that the vocal music of the Indians is not equal to
that of their instrumental music, which is especially true of the
quality of their voice, which is sharp and shrill. All their airs are
applied to words of love; they are regrets, and reproaches, addressed
to a faithless swain, and sometimes allusions drawn from the history
of the ancient kings, or from holy Scripture.
Sometimes a number of Indians gather in the house of one of them and
form a concert of amateurs. At that time they sing the Passion to
the accompaniment of a full orchestra. At other times five, seven,
or nine bagontaos (young bachelors) assemble at night in the beautiful
clear moonlight and run about the villages in the vicinity of Manila,
where they give serenades to their sweethearts, their dalagas, or
donzellias [i.e., doncella (maidens)], whom the Tagálogs who are
of more distinguished rank and who speak Spanish call their novias
[i.e., sweethearts]. One could imagine nothing more singular and
more picturesque than to see during those brilliant nights of the
torrid zone, when the moon sheds floods of silver light, and the
balmy breeze tempers the burning heat of the atmosphere, to see,
we say, the Indians crouched en cuclillas for entire hours without
getting tired of that position, which we would find so uncomfortable,
singing their love under the windows of their mistresses.
Numerous orchestras of musicians are summoned at any hour of the day
to the houses of Manila in order to have all sorts of ancient and
modern dances there: the old rigodons, [136] quadrilles, the English
contradances, waltzes, gallops, and without doubt the polka will not
be long in penetrating there also. It is rare among the Indians,
and especially among the mestizos, that a baptism, marriage, or
any ceremony is celebrated without music and dancing. The burial of
children (criaturas) is always accompanied by music.
One further word on the extraordinary talent of the Indians for musical
execution. One day we accompanied Monsieur Auguste Barrot, our worthy
consul, the alcalde of the province of Laguna, on a tour which he
was making for the election of gobernadorcillos. We reached Calaüan,
where we stopped to sup and sleep at the house of a respectable cura
whose house, like that of all ecclesiastics, was open to all travelers
without exception. Travelers are there fed and lodged as long as
they please to stop and without any cost to them. Now, at the house
of this cura we heard an Indian who played with equal perfection on
seven different instruments, on which he executed the most difficult
pieces. When he had finished, the good cura, in order to amuse us,
performed some sleight of hand tricks and juggling, and showed us a
theater of marionnettes, which he had himself mounted.
The comintang, which we have before mentioned as a national song, is
also a dance. While the musicians are playing and singing it an Indian
and an Indian woman execute a pantomime which agrees with the words. It
is a lover who is trying to inflame the heart of a young girl, about
whom he runs while making innumerable amorous movements and greetings
in the fashion of the country, accompanied by movements of the arms
and of the body, which are not the most decent, but which cause the
spectators to break out into loud and joyous laughter. Finally, the
lover, not being able to succeed, feigns to be sick and falls into a
chair prepared for him. The young girl, frightened, flies to his aid
but he rises again very soon cured, and begins to dance and turn about
with her in all directions, to the great applause of those present.
The pampamgo is another dance which is especially remarkable by the
movements of the loins, and the special grace which the women show
in it. It is accompanied by very significative clapping of the hands.
In the Visayas they dance the bagay, the music and song of which are
langorous and melancholy, like that of the comintang. It is also a
lover and a mistress who dance, the while they mingle their motions
with cries.
The Montescos of the provinces of the north of the island of Luçon
also dance to the sound of their bamboo flutes, but their gestures
and their postures are so indecent that for shame a woman never dances
except with her husband.
The Negritos in their dances hold in their hands their bow and arrows
and utter horrible cries. They make frightful contortions and leaps to
which in the country one has given the name of camarones, comparing
them to those that the sea-crabs make in the water. They end their
dance by shooting their arrows into the air, and their eyesight is so
quick that they sometimes kill a bird on the wing. Their ouroucay,
or song of the mountains, is a very pleasing melody consisting of
six measures which are repeated time and time again, which if it were
arranged for chorus, would make a fine effect.
The fandango, the çapateado, the cachucha, and other Spanish dances
have been adopted by the Indians, and they do not lack grace when
they dance them to the accompaniment of castinets, which they play
with a remarkable precision. They also execute some dances of Nueva
España, such as for example the jarabès, where they show all the
Spanish vivacity with movements of their figure, of their breasts,
of their hips, to right and left forward and backward, and pirouettes,
whose rapidity is such that the eye can scarce follow them.
Drawing and painting are much further advanced than one would believe
among the Indians of the Philippines. Without taking into account
the fine geographical maps of Nicolas de Ocampo, we can cite the
miniatures of Denian, and Sauriano, the pictures of churches, and the
oil portraits of Oreco. Those works are indeed far from being perfect,
for the artists to whom they are due have never had any masters,
but they present marks of great talent, and the portraits have a
striking resemblance [to the original]. We seize this occasion to
testify all our gratitude to the two mestizo designers, Juan Serapio
Transfiguracion Nepomuceno, and his son, for the services which as
artists they have been pleased to render us with so much kindness.